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Saturday, October 30, 2010

Liverpool boss Roy Hodgson has welcomed new owner John Henry's statement that he will not be selling any players in the January transfer window and will instead attempt to strengthen. Key men Fernando Torres and Pepe Reina have both been linked with moves away from Anfield in the New Year, with Manchester United linked with the latter as the replacement for Edwin van der Sar. But Hodgson, who has been in regular contact with the New England Sports Ventures group, led by Henry and co-owner Tom Werner, is not under pressure to sell players, although he admits things could have been different had controversial former co- owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett been in charge. "The statements were totally self-explanatory and in line with everything John and Tom have told me all along," Hodgson said. "It is very much in line with our aims for the club. Rebuild "One of our aims for the club is to rebuild and restructure and get much stronger. The way we hope to do that is keeping our strong base of top players and adding more players to it. "There have never been any discussions of the need to sell or get rid of players. All the talk has been of how we are going to make the team stronger. "It is a very different situation to the one I found myself in at the beginning. There was talk then of staving off administration and having to let players go. "But the new owners coming in has completely changed the face of things and, as far as we are concerned, their statement is perfect. It is just what everyone wants to hear."